Waste of time and resources: Senate discloses CIA torture report

The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted Thursday to recommend declassification of the summary, findings and conclusions of its report on the CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation methods," which critics say amount to torture. Senator Dianne...

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In an act of contrition, Senators have voted to reveal some of the contents of a CIAtorture report. It is a democracy in the USA, and making government transparent after having committed acts, some of which are contrary to national values, standards, policies and laws, is a way to put positive spin on the outcome.

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Senator Dianne Feinstein describes the report as “shocking,” and all the while she was one of the leaders in charge. That’s shocking.

President’s George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama were both in charge while CIA transgressions were in process, and probably still are. No one will know until another incident happens, and when years after the fact there will be another shocking revelation.

Government by the people requires that elected representatives honor the Constitution and will of the people with integrity and trust. The CIA has broken that trust when in fact it depends upon trust for its livelihood. Broken government comes from broken laws, broken legislative process, and broken executive management. The American Political System is in peril.

After years of inquiry, $40m in expenses and an unprecedented clash with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Senate intelligence committee voted on Thursday to declassify portions of a study into the agency's use of torture on detainees suspected of being involved in terrorism.

The landmark 11-3 vote now places the Obama administration back at the center of an inherited controversy that it has sought for over five years to escape.

That controversy has immediate implications for the military tribunals of the 9/11 defendants at Guantánamo Bay, several of whom were subjected to the abuse.

Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein of California, a public champion of the investigation, called its findings "shocking" and the CIA's behavior "in stark contrast to our values as a nation".

"This nation admits its errors, as painful as they may be," Feinstein said in a short statement following the vote, which took place in a secret session.”

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James A. George has over 25 years of experience working in the government consulting space with many years interacting with Congressional staff and government executives as a program manager and executive in developing policies. He was liaison between the Office of Secretary of Defense and the Aerospace Industries Association addressing standards for electronic commerce. He has written hundreds of papers and a book titled Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy (c)2010 Wiley Publishing. He has published columns titled "The American Political System" and wrote a new book titled How to Select and American President (c)2011 All Rights Reserved.